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All Core i3 Models and more

Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles, including All Core i3 Models, iOS 7: Six Things Apple Got Right And Six That Are Still Missing, Seagate's Desktop SSHD 2TB hybrid drive reviewed, Fractal Define XL R2, and Samsung Galaxy Gear Review

All Core i3 Models @ Hardware Secrets

The Core i3 is a CPU series manufactured by Intel aimed at entry-level computers. In this tutorial, we will present a series of quick reference tables for you to compare the main differences between all models released to date.

Cheap and slightly shonky, but quirky and intriguing mobos. That used to be Asrock's place in the world. These days, however, the manufacturer has gone a bit mainstream. On the upside, that means a range of more straightforward models, including some high-end clobber. That said, old affinities die hard, and we're a little bit more comfortable with the prospect of the Z87 Extreme3, a bargain basement board with an Asrock badge than one of its closest competitors, such as the rather disappointing entry from Gigabyte, the lacklustre Z87-D3HP.

With NVIDIA’s GTX 780 dominating the high end and their GTX 760 providing an excellent price / performance ratio within the sub-$300 segment, many have been overlooking the GTX 770. This $400 graphics uses the same GK104 as its spiritual predecessor, the GTX 680 but increases performance through the use of higher Boost clocks and increased memory bandwidth. The result is an adaptable platform that should be appealing to gamers who can’t afford a GTX 780 but want more staying power than a GTX 760 can provide.

ASUS has jumped on the bandwagon with both feet but, unlike their competitors, have narrowly focused their efforts towards a single SKU: the GTX 770 DirectCU II OC. This is an excellent approach since brand confusion can be minimized while gamers get to benefit from slightly lower pricing since ASUS didn’t need to thinly spread their resources in an effort to cover too many different products.

iOS 7: Six Things Apple Got Right And Six That Are Still Missing @ Techspot

Despite how much people claim to like change, at the core we are creatures of habit. Just as we saw when Facebook introduced Timeline and as we will see when Twitter makes its next significant change, people are going to get up in arms about it. Apple’s iOS 7 was no different.

Described as the biggest change to iOS since the introduction of the iPhone, iOS 7 has been available to the general public for roughly two weeks at this point. That’s given everyone plenty of time to get accustomed to all of the changes and vent about them, but for us, it’s served as an evaluation period.

The power requirements of enthusiast and gaming PCs have increased dramatically over the last few years, due to the development of ever more powerful and sophisticated CPUs and graphics processors. More power can often mean higher energy bills, and manufacturers have been working on improving power efficiency for their products in response.

While the general trend has been higher energy consumption, there are many consumers that don’t need a high end kilowatt (or higher) power supply. There is still a considerable market for mid-range units in the 750-800W range that are powerful enough to run SLI or Crossfire without being overkill and breaking the bank.

Variety is the spice of life. I believe there is no greater thing than having choices. Personal taste plays such a huge role in everything we do as humans. Everything from the clothes we wear, the music we listen to, the food we eat, everything. Sadly, in our consumer driven society, choices can also become detrimental to the quality of our options. So many people make bad choices that are not based on facts or research or anything except pure commercialization, which then leads to more bad options being available when making choices. Just look at the food industry, instead of being able to go get good, fresh, quality food in a reasonable portion size, we are basically forced into overindulging on low quality food that, in reality, is likely unfit for consumption.

Thankfully, this type of over commercialization has not fully crept into custom PC building, yet. There is some, but not many. Therefore, when making a choice about which product to buy, a lot of it can be reduced to personal taste. Not to mention, the tech culture seems to be a bit more discerning, and that is why you are here, and why HiTech Legion does reviews in the first place. We want to know what is amazing and what just does not pull its own weight. We technophiles love taking things apart and nit-picking their every component, scrutinizing every engineering decision, and putting a device through its paces.

Overall the MEKA G-Unit Red Switch Edition Mechanical Keyboard from Thermaltake's branch of ESPORTS gear was not too bad. I won't say it was one of my favorite keyboards that I've used but honestly that goes back to the fact that I hate Reds. This keyboard was designed specifically to cater to those of you who love the Cherry MX Reds - and that's just not me. That doesn't change the fact that this keyboard is built quite well and could kill a zombie in your gaming room without a struggle. It also doesn't change the unique "gaming" lighting patterns available - providing some lighting rather than none at all.

Seagate's hybrid tech has finally been deployed in a desktop drive. The Desktop SSHD combines an 8GB flash cache with 2TB of mechanical storage. We take a closer look at how that combo holds up against standard hard drives and SSDs.

Earlier this year we went hands-on with the R4 from Fractal, a mid tower solution to the Define product line. We were quite pleased with the humble case, the simple Fractal facade silently housing a myriad of features. Our one complaint was the weight of the chassis, to which Fractal responded by sending us the R4’s big brother full tower, the XL R2. I'll be installing a full ATX building and, against better judgement, showing it off at our upcoming LAN party.Take a look with us, we could use an extra hand lifting.

Driving air through the heatsinks' aluminum fins is a 92x25mm PWM fan which is held in place with rubber fan mounts. This is not a method we're not particularly fond of, wire fan clips stand the test of time. The fan spins at 2400-1000RPM and draws power from a standard 4-pin PWM connection. At full speed it pushes upwards of 53CFM air through the 55mm deep fin stack according to the manufacturer specs. Raijintek's Aidos heatsink installs onto Intel socket LGA2011/1366/1150/1155/1156/775 processors and the complete line up of AMD CPUs.

Raijintek's Aidos is one of a trio of CPU coolers the company recently released. Do not let its small size fool you: This pint-sized tower cooler packs a punch. Featuring four 6 mm heatpipes, a 92 x 25 mm fan, and stylish good looks, it even managed to beat out the heftier competition.

When it comes to SSD controllers, up until recent times LSI/SandForce and Marvell have pretty much ruled the roost. Other than a few instances of utilizing proprietary controllers (such as Samsung does in most of their SSDs), and a smaller player in Indilinx (acquired by OCZ), there were no other options for manufacturers to engineer a new SSD with. That has recently begun to change, as other controllers are beginning to appear on the scene. The last Corsair SSDs (the Neutron and Neutron GTX) that we reviewed back in August featured the new Link A Media (LAMD) 6 GB/s controller. Corsair was one of the first SSD manufacturers to hit the retail market, and although they have proceeded a bit more carefully than other manufacturers, they have earned a reputation as providing some of the top performing SSDs that money can buy. Their success in SSDs has shown with their willingness to explore different controllers in search of the best, as well as bringing outnon-standard SSD capacities that few others offer. The Corsair Performance Pro was one of the better SSDs we have tested, and it surprised everyone as it is based on the Marvell 9174 controller, and Corsair truly found the sweet spot in its performance.

When developing the V-Series power supplies Cooler Master had one thing in mind. They wanted their name to be what you thought of when you were looking to buy a new power supply or upgrade your current one. The V-Series design is based on a brand new platform that makes use of Japanese capacitors, most of them solid capacitors, as well as a high quality 42 mm transformer. This means the power supply will have outstanding efficiency and stability. Today we are taking a look at the V850 which features a single 12V rail, an 80PLUS Gold certification, a silent 135mm fan and an all modular design. Read on as we take a look

One of my all-time favorite iPhone 4 cases was the HoverCoat from monCarbone. Its carbon fiber material made it light as a feather yet durable with steel like strength. With the release of the iPhone 5 and now iPhone 5S, monCarbone has introduced the HoverCoat Plus. This improved version adds Basalt fiber along with carbon fiber to enhance both signal reception and to boost durability.

Basalt fibers are commonly used in aircraft, high-end automobiles, watercraft and other accessories that require extreme durability and tear resistance. Adding it to the Hovercraft case seems like a no-brainer.

HEXUS has repeatedly shown that modern high-performance PCs are remarkably energy efficient when evaluated by historical standards. It's rare for a well-integrated PC featuring a single graphics card to chew through more than 300W when gaming, and equipping your next build with a mainstream power-supply unit (PSU) - 600-800W - makes a lot of sense.

German manufacturer be quiet! has bolstered its six-range lineup with the Power Zone series that plays for this mainstream market, with capacities ranging from 650W to 1,000W. Looking for an optimum relationship between price and must-have features, be quiet! drops the efficiency to 80 PLUS Bronze, which reduces price and allocates savings towards a fully-modular cable setup.